


The Field Trip

by things_that_matter



Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [36]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: Brothers, Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Field Trip, Intimacy, M/M, Museums, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:21:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29318562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/things_that_matter/pseuds/things_that_matter
Summary: Ollie is going on a school field trip, and his teacher wants Elio or Oliver to chaperone.
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [36]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094873
Comments: 18
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brokenlibrarygirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenlibrarygirl/gifts), [Chrisaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrisaki/gifts).



> Chapter two has been posted. This story is complete. :)

“I’m nervous,” Elio muttered. 

Oliver smiled. “I offered to go, you know,” he reminded. 

“Maybe you should,” Elio said hopefully.

Oliver’s smile grew wider, but he wasn’t being condescending. He could see that Elio was, in truth, very tense. “It’s too late, Elio. You are the one who completed the background check,” he gently noted. 

“Maybe neither of us actually  _ needs _ to go,” Elio knew it was wishful thinking. 

“Elio, you’re not scared of science museums, are you? You can do this!” Oliver encouraged. 

Elio’s nightmare had begun when Ollie’s teacher called the previous week. After the incident with Danny, Elio had contacted the school. He and Oliver had set forth several expectations for the school. They wanted the boys seated apart. They wanted them supervised on the playground and in the cafeteria. Thus, they should not have been surprised when the teacher called and set some expectations of her own. 

“As you know, the field trip is next week,” she began. Elio said that, yes, of course he knew. “Well, I’m sure you can imagine that field trips are very busy days. My attention will be divided among several different critical events,” she was beating around the bush, Elio thought. He didn’t make things easier for her by active listening. He simply sat quietly. “If it is important to you that Ollie and Danny be separated or that their interactions be closely monitored, I am going to have to ask you to come along and chaperone.” 

Elio promised to think about it, and she said that was fine but to please let her know by the end of the week so that she could refund Ollie’s money. This left Elio speechless. He deduced that Ollie couldn’t attend the field trip if he didn’t go along? That really left him no choice. He was going on a field trip.

So this morning as he stood lost in his own miserable thoughts of this dreaded day, Elio was suddenly thrown off balance by two familiar arms clasping him suddenly around the waist from behind. 

“Are you so super duper excited about the science museum!?” Ollie asked without letting go. 

Elio reached around behind him, found Ollie’s upper arm, and began gently tugging the child. It was a fruitless endeavor, though. Ollie was holding Elio in a vice grip. 

“Woah, are we going to have to wait for the next thunderclap to get you to let go?” Oliver chuckled, referencing snapping turtles. 

Ollie looked confused. “No, I’ll let go before then,” he said. 

“It was a joke,” Oliver laughed. 

“Oh,” Ollie said. “Did you tell the whole thing?”

“Never mind,” Oliver said. Then he noticed Elio was still trying to extract the little boy from his person. “Let go of your brother, let’s go over the rules again,” Oliver decided one more run through wouldn’t hurt. 

“But I still remember the rules from last night,” Ollie pointed out. 

“I don’t think you do, because you’re not following them,” Oliver pointed out. 

“What?” Ollie asked, confused. 

“You’re supposed to be listening and doing what you’re told. That’s one of the rules,” Oliver pointed out again.

Ollie rolled his eyes. “The rules don't start til we get there!” Ollie said. It seemed fair to him. But, he did let go of Elio and started following Oliver into the living room so he could listen to him talk about listening to Elio and his teacher, and not wandering off on his own. And of course, staying away from Danny. 

“Understand?” Oliver asked after stating all the rules again. 

“Got it!” Ollie promised. Then, turning to Elio, “Elio, are you so super duper excited about the science museum?” 

Elio ruffled Ollie’s hair, “Super duper.” 

“Me too!!” Ollie stood and bounced up and down several times. 

Oliver sent a sympathetic look Elio’s way. Elio grinned and pointed to the bouncing child. “Oliver, shouldn’t you make a rule about bouncing up and down like a wild child?” 

This caused Ollie to bounce twice as high and twice as fast, just in case a rule was passed against it and this was his last time to bounce in his entire life. 

“You all have a fun day! I can’t wait to hear all about it,” Oliver laughed, kissed everyone goodbye, and was off to work. 

Elio smiled dreamily at the door after Oliver was gone, and Ollie rolled his eyes. 

“I hope I’m never in love!” Ollie giggled. 

“Yeah well, we need to go. Grab your backpack,” Elio said with determination set upon his features. 

After they arrived at the school, Elio was pretty sure he’d entered Dante’s Inferno. 

“Oh, Mr. Perlman!” the teacher greeted. 

“Please, call me Elio,” said Elio, but he was already developing a headache. Little Ollie-like beings were running around the room in a state of extreme excitement. It was as if they’d all eaten cereal for breakfast, Elio thought. And then, things took a turn for the worse. 

“These are the children you’ll be responsible for,” explained the teacher, handing Elio a paper with six names on it, including Ollie. 

“Uh, what?” Elio knew a mistake had been made, and he was simply trying to determine what it was. 

“You’re chaperoning, right?” The teacher was suddenly concerned, shuffling through her paperwork. 

“Well, yes, but I didn’t realize,” Elio began. He was interrupted by the busy teacher.

“Didn’t you read the papers I sent you?” She asked, and in his peripheral vision, Elio saw Ollie snickering. 

“Of course, the papers. I must have forgotten,” Elio muttered, looking at the list of six names. He had been worried about whether he could make Ollie behave himself all day. Now he had six children? Dear God, why hadn’t he taken Oliver up on the offer to attend in his place? 

As soon as the teacher strolled away, Elio looked down at his giggling little brother with a look of mild reproach. 

Ollie was unconcerned though, he gave the look right back. “You didn’t do your homework,” the little boy sang. 

“Yeah, whatever. Help me gather these other five little angels,” Elio grumbled. Ollie looked at the paper and nodded. He took Elio by the hand and began dragging him to each child on the list, one by one. Each time they approached one of the students, Elio held his breath for a moment, worried that one of them would be mean to his baby brother... like Danny. He suddenly realized he was a bit traumatized from the event, and wondered if Ollie was as well. Elio knew Ollie didn’t have friends at school, but he couldn’t bear the thought of people being out-and-out mean. Fortunately, no one was. Ollie introduced each student to Elio, and they all seemed to think that Elio was the coolest. Elio suddenly realized that he had the opportunity to help Ollie. Maybe, if he played his cards well, Ollie might even make a friend today. 

The teacher suddenly called all of the students and chaperones together to go over the expectations for students and adults. It all sounded straightforward enough to Elio. But, when she finished talking, the teacher added one more rule. “For insurance purposes, no parents are allowed to ride the bus today. However, all students must ride the bus. So, with that said, we will meet you at the museum. Line up, students!” 

Elio didn’t know what to do. “Wait here a minute,” he whispered to Ollie. His other five little shadows had gathered around Ollie and seemed to be excited about being in his group. 

Elio approached the teacher, who made it clear she was entirely too busy to chat, which Elio understood, but this was important. “I am taking Ollie with me. I didn’t want you to be worried about him,” Elio explained. 

The teacher shook her head. “That’s not possible. For insurance purposes, we can’t allow students to travel separately. They are technically under our care today,” she explained. 

“Yes, but you understand that we have a special circumstance here,” Elio began. 

“Mr. Perlman…  _ Elio _ … It looks like Ollie has made some friends, or at the very least has the opportunity to make some,” they both looked over where Ollie and the others in his group had lined up together. “Why don’t you look at this as an opportunity. It might be good for Ollie to ride on the bus with his group. I certainly don’t think it would benefit him socially to travel separately.” 

Elio sighed, but the teacher was already walking away. Though Elio didn’t like it, he thought that she actually made a good point. So, he went over to where Ollie was standing in line. “Ollie, I’ll see you there, okay?” Elio quietly stated.

Ollie looked immediately nervous. “I want to ride with you,” he whined. 

Elio saw the other students from their group watching the interaction curiously. Elio didn’t want to embarrass Ollie, and he certainly didn’t want to do anything to hurt his fragile social health. It was a lot of pressure for a big brother. He pulled Ollie out of the line and whispered to him, “Ollie, you’re riding the bus. Don’t whine like that. You’ll make your new friends feel like you don’t want to sit with them.” 

“But I don’t want to sit with them. I want to sit with you. And they aren’t even my friends. They don’t even like me,” Ollie whined, not at a low enough volume to suit Elio either. 

“Ollie, let’s have a great day and meet new people. Let’s not spend the day in trouble. Okay?” Elio was all but pleading. 

Ollie scowled. He didn’t like being threatened. Especially not by his big brother. The other kids from his group were outright staring now. Ollie didn’t want to be embarrassed and he knew that Elio would get onto him if he felt he had to. So Ollie tried his best to stop scowling, nodded his acquiescence, and went to stand in line with his not-friends. 

Elio called Oliver on the way to the museum. 

After he finished laughing, Oliver said, “You’ll be fine, Elio. They are only seven. Just remember, you’re a grown up. If you expect them to behave, then they will.” 

Elio scoffed. “That sounds like some sort of mystical nonsense to me,” he groaned. 

“So far, you’re not exuding confidence, Elio,” Oliver pointed out. 

Elio thought Oliver was less than helpful, so he decided he should hang up and focus on driving. He arrived at the museum just before the bus did. When it arrived, Elio watched the kids filing out. He felt exceedingly nervous. Nervous about being responsible for six children when he barely felt competent to handle the one. Nervous about helping Ollie make some friends. He wanted to be the super cool big brother that led the group on the most epic field trip ever. Surely that would earn some cool points for Ollie. Ollie, who was currently picking up ants from the sidewalk and placing them in the grass while the other kids from his group looked on with unreadable expressions. 

This day could be a game changer. This day could make all the difference for Ollie, for better or worse. This day could have far-reaching consequences for Ollie, positive or negative. 

It was all up to Elio. So, he did what any big brother worth his salt would do. He walked up to his little brother, nudged his little converse sneaker with his own larger one, and said, “Leave those ants alone and let’s blow this pop stand.” 

“Doesn’t that mean we’re leaving?” Ollie asked. 

“I don’t know. Come on, kiddo,” Elio said, knowing that he had his work cut out for him. 

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do you get when you combine six Ollies, one Elio, and a science museum?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second and final part of this story.

Once inside the lobby of the museum, Elio grew even more nervous. He was determined though, not to reveal it. Oliver had assured him that “kids can smell fear.” Elio glanced around at the other parents and their little groups. They all seemed so confident about what they were doing. They looked so competent as they passed out name tags, and they seemed to be giving the groups pep talks of some kind, but Elio couldn’t imagine what they were saying. He really wished he’d read the dense bundle of papers the teacher had sent when he agreed to chaperone. 

He found a Sharpie that had been discarded by one of the more efficient parents who had already finished with her name tags and was now squirting hand sanitizer everywhere. He took the Sharpie and wrote “Elio” on his hand. He was embarrassed, and was worried that Ollie would be, too. But, his little group laughed as if he had done something truly astounding. They all formed a little line, each holding their hand up for him as he wrote their names. Just after he finished the last student, someone from the museum walked over with stickers that were meant to be used as name tags. Elio just looked down his nose at them. “Name tags? We laugh in the face of name tags, don’t we?” His group all called, “Yeah!” and held up their labeled hands as if it were rehearsed. 

Elio had five other children in his group, in addition to Ollie. Three of them were boys, and two were girls. Elio had no experience with female children, but he found them to be essentially like the boys. They were happy with their names scribbled in Sharpie on their hands, and they wanted to do all the same things the boys wanted to do. Whereas the other parents seemed to have a chart of exactly which part of the museum to be in at certain times, probably something from that mysterious packet of paperwork, Elio simply let his group lead the way. His only request was that everyone stay together. He also asked a lot of great questions to help them think through the things they were seeing and the activities they were completing. 

While Elio saw other groups with kids who were arguing, unhappy, whiney, tired, and in other ways discontent due to their inability to choose freely what to do, Elio’s group was all smiles. Elio fortunately found out by reading a sign that the cafeteria was reserved for their school at a specific time, so he managed to get his group there promptly. They were all eating and talking about their favorite things they’d seen and done so far when the teacher approached Elio. He cringed inwardly, ready to be scolded for not following the schedule he didn’t know about, or breaking some rules he hadn’t read. 

But instead, he was relieved to hear the teacher say, “Your group certainly seems to be having fun today. You must have experience with kids.” 

Elio shook his head, “Just with this one.” He placed his hand on Ollie’s head, and noticed that Ollie didn’t even turn to look at him, he was so busy talking to the other kids in the group. In fact, Elio thought Ollie might not have even noticed his hand resting on his head, and he thought that was a very good thing. 

“Really?” the teacher was obviously surprised. “I thought you must have a teaching or coaching background.” 

“No, in fact, I didn’t even attend school as a kid,” Elio laughed. 

“Oh, you were homeschooled?” she asked. Elio nodded, and she continued, “That explains your more child-directed approach to chaperoning.” 

Elio’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t sure if this was a criticism, but she looked sincere enough to him. As if she understood that he was evaluating her motive, she added, “Really. This group is having the most fun, the least amount of trouble, and from the eavesdropping I’ve been doing, I am willing to bet they are learning the most, too.” 

Elio beamed, he couldn’t help himself. “Well… I do teach piano lessons.” 

She smiled. “That must be it,” she replied. 

The remainder of the day went just as smoothly. The group agreed that the Tesla Coil was the most exciting part of the day. They were so impressed by what they learned about Nikola Tesla. Only Ollie had already heard of him and knew something about him, which gave Elio another reason to be proud. It also gave Ollie another opportunity to shine. The entire group was so impressed by him. It was wonderful to see Ollie smiling and happy. At one point, Danny tried to come and sneak into their group, which Elio had heard was being called, “The fun group.” Elio of course sent him back to his own group so no one would worry about him. At the conclusion of the field trip, Elio got one more happy surprise. Though the students were required to take the bus to the museum, parents had the option to sign their child out of school in order for their child to ride home with them. Elio guessed this was because school would be over by the time they got there. Tousling Ollie’s hair, Elio said to Ollie, “Well, say goodbye to your group mates.” To the other kids Elio smiled and added, “It was nice meeting you all. I had fun.”

The other kids, even some from other groups, all wanted hugs, or high fives, or fist bumps from Elio, but Ollie was standing back, and for the first time he looked unhappy. Elio wondered if he was perhaps getting a little jealous. “You ready?” Elio asked, but Ollie shook his head. 

Elio gave him a quizzical look. “No?” he asked. “What’s wrong, Ollie?” he then asked, more quietly. 

Ollie shrugged. “I just wanted to ride the bus back. With my new friends.”

Elio smiled. “That’s fine. I’ll meet you back at school,” Elio promised. He just couldn’t stop smiling as he watched Ollie line up with his new friends. 

Later that night, Ollie had to tell Oliver all about the field trip. Elio was surprised and impressed with Ollie’s ability to recall the day minute by minute. It took Ollie almost as long to tell Oliver about the day as it did for them to actually experience the day. But, Oliver listened patiently, asking plenty of questions along the way just so Ollie would know he was listening. Finally, when Ollie finished, Oliver asked, “So, which of your new friends is your favorite? Is there one person you’d like us to reach out to. Maybe a playdate?” 

Ollie nodded. “Yeah, I like everyone but me and Joey really got along especially well. I think it would be super fun to have a sleepover!!” Ollie chattered excitedly. 

Oliver noticed a hesitant look cross Elio’s face and wasn’t sure what to make of it. “So, was Joey the one you mentioned who went onstage with you to volunteer during the Tesla demonstration?” Oliver asked for clarification. 

It was Elio who answered though, “No. Joey was the one with the braids. She lives in our neighborhood.” 

“She?” Oliver asked.

Ollie wondered why Oliver and Elio were both wearing the exact same expression on their faces. 

~FIN~ 


End file.
